It has been awhile since a post on cricket. I am sure you have been disappointed.

My therapist, nurturing me through the stages of grief after the shattering World Cup final loss, tells me that this is a good time to write, to reflect and to work-out some of the sadness. I love writing about cricket. Some of it more serious, like the posts on those exquisite histories of cricket in South Asia (here and here and here), and at other times it is more fun, like with cricket statistics.

Hitting Sixes
Eight years ago this blog alerted the world to the possibilities of Tim Southee becoming the greatest hitter of sixes in the history of Test cricket. I like to think that this was my own ‘breaking news’ story :). :). The oddity in it is that Southee is primarily a bowler, not a batter. He is still on track with this possibility, hitting sixes at almost exactly the same rate as Adam Gilchrist (one every 1.4 innings). At his current rate of hitting, Southee will need to bat another 50 innings to get from 72 sixes to 108 and the record. Up to this point in his career he has had 100 innings and so, with him turning 31 next week and batting so far down in the order, he’ll need some health and longevity to get there. For all those Test cricketers who have hit more than 60 sixes, the only person who has done so at a higher rate is Chris Cairns of New Zealand.

There are two current batsmen who are creeping up behind Southee with the potential to beat him to that 108. One is Englishman Ben Stokes (61 sixes, one every 1.75 innings) and the other is Indian Rohit Sharma (52, one every 1.02 innings). Further down the list there emerges an intriguing figure, the only person in Test history to hit more than 30 sixes at a rate higher than 1 per innings (35 sixes, one every .8 innings). Yes, it is the man whose name, when translated, literally means ‘the big man’ – Colin de Grandhomme. Sure it is a small sample size (28 innings) in a career of a 33 year old that has played primarily on NZ’s smaller grounds. He won’t get anywhere near Southee, but I am still going to have fun tracking this statistic through the rest of his career.

All-rounders
Another post I enjoyed writing, also eight years ago (goodness me, that must have been a slow year!), was about the great all-rounders in history, those players who could contribute to a team’s performance with their batting and their bowling. In the way the statistics work, the mark of the great all-rounders is that their batting average is higher than their bowling average and ranking them by this differential is a pretty safe way to assess their class. So, for example, take the standard criteria of a career with at least 1000 runs and 100 wickets. Here is the list from eight years ago:
1. Jacques Kallis (SA)  +24.23
2. Gary Sobers (WI)  +23.75
3. Imran Khan (Pak)  +14.88
4. Keith Miller (Aus)  +14.00
5. Shaun Pollock (SA)  +9.20
6. Trevor Goddard (SA)  +8.24
7. Tony Grieg (Eng)  +8.23
8. Ian Botham (Eng)  +5.14
9. Richard Hadlee (NZ)  +4.87
10. Chris Cairns (NZ)  +4.13

Not too many arguments there. In the intervening years, how has this list changed? We need to show a little reluctance to add people until their careers have actually finished (often performances decline towards the end) – but let’s take today’s snapshot of the statistics. Those who would be added are:
Ravi Jadeja (Ind)  +10.82
Shakib Al Hasan (Ban) +8.28
Jason Holder (WI)  +6.35

Remarkably, a familiar name pops up. While the sample size is small (19 tests; 968 runs; 38 wickets), the current trajectory is impressive. Once again, it is Colin de Grandhomme (NZ)  +10.70. Wow. I’d love to see him get to the 1000/50 mark as that is the standard for a batting all-rounder (ie someone who contributes more through their batting than their bowling). If he can get to 50 wickets and maintain a +10.7 differential (unlikely, I realise), then the only batting all-rounders since World War II with a better record than him will be:
1. Kallis +24.23
2. Sobers +23.75
3. Imran +14.88
4. Miller +14.00
5. Steve Waugh (Aus) +13.61
6. Ted Dexter (Eng) +12.95
7. Jadeja +10.82
8. Frank Worrell (WI) +10.76
Colin de Grandhomme comes in at #9 with Asif Iqbal (Pak, +10.51), Mushtaq Mohammed (Pak, +9.94) snapping at his heels – and no one else until Jayasuriya (SL, +5.72). Incredible, as in incredulous!

While statistics can be misleading, they are always fun. I’ve never thought that de Grandhomme was anything special as a cricketer, but he is actually putting together an impressive career in Test cricket. The next five Tests will be decisive, with three matches in Australia (this month) and two at home against India (in February). But first he needs to shake-off this abdominal strain…

One thing is for sure. Our least favourite Yorkshireman, Geoff Boycott, was rather uncharitable in his comments about de Grandhomme last week. “Joe Root was caught at point off a bowler, Colin de Grandhomme, who is slightly better than me, and I was poor.” That is, Boycott (Eng)  -41.44.

Two more little facts. Colin de Grandhomme was born in Zimbabwe and the talk about the therapist at the start of this post is untrue. I’ve handled the memory of that World Cup final loss in a mature way. I’ve buried it along with the feelings of gross injustice.

nice chatting

Paul